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The Community Services Quality and Safety Office

24 September 2018

The Community Services Quality and Safety Office was established to strengthen the quality and safety of community services delivered, funded and regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Community Services Quality and Safety Office (the Office) was established in December 2017 to strengthen the quality and safety of community services delivered, funded and regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The approach of the Office will help to shift the department's collective approach from a focus on the individual quality and safety of programs within community services (e.g. Child Protection, Family Services, Housing and Homelessness) to a systems approach that takes into account that individuals are often users of multiple programs.

One of the Office’s first tasks was to develop in consultation with stakeholders and clients, a Quality Governance Framework for community services. The framework aligns with Safer Care Victoria’s Victorian Clinical Governance Framework and sets the objective of safe, effective, connected and person-centred community services for everybody, every time. It outlines the roles and responsibilities involved in delivering on this objective and the domains and systems which promote and support its consistent delivery. The Office is currently testing our 2018/19 implementation plan with key stakeholders.

The Office has also commenced work to design a more effective future system architecture for the delivery of safe, effective, connected and person-centred community services. In order to clarify functions and improve connections and processes, the Office is translating the framework into operational capabilities to create a bridge between the framework and day-to-day operations. The Office will consult with stakeholders later this year to inform this work.

Other priority deliverables to build capacity across the community services system to embed quality governance and reduce harm include: developing a client voice framework and a set of resources to promote the presence and influence of the client voice in all aspects of services design and delivery; quality governance eLearning module for practitioners, quality governance toolkit and training for boards/CEOs; development of a core suite of quality and safety measures; establishment of local area networks and testing of improvement collaborative methodology.